PRESERVE THE PAST FOR THE FUTURE
Abingdon Museum Friends work with and for Abingdon County Hall Museum, in its role as a focal point for Abingdon’s residents, the provision of a tourist destination for visitors and as a place to learn, understand and enjoy the heritage and environment of Abingdon.
Abingdon County Hall, completed in 1682, dominates the centre of this ancient town, once the county town of Berkshire. Its principal creator, Christopher Kempster, was one of Sir Christopher Wren’s masons. The two men worked together on St Paul’s Cathedral after the Great Fire of London.
The Museum, since its inauguration in 1912, has been situated in the Sessions Hall, built to house the Berkshire Assize Courts (transferred to Reading in 1867). The County Hall was adapted and re-opened for the purpose of exhibiting a fine collection of antiquities, the historic core of the collections.
FUNDRAISING UPDATE
This amount, together with considerable support from Abingdon Town Council, Vale of White Horse District Council and Oxfordshire County Council, puts the Appeal very close to matching the Lottery Fund Grant of £1,710,000. We are hoping to raise at least another £15,000 by the deadline of the end of November this year.
Every £10 we donate will be matched with £10 by the Lottery Fund.
Please help us achieve this goal.
The Museum’s collection of historical and archaeological artefacts includes fragments of vessels from Neolithic times and artefacts from every period thereafter, giving evidence of Abingdon as England’s longest continuously occupied town.
Of the free-standing town halls in England with open ground floors, this is probably the finest.
To find out how to help us support the Museum, please visit our Appeal page.